Around the corner from my office in New York stands a string of sushi restaurants. At lunchtime most days they are packed with professionals, gobbling down cold lumps of toro (tuna belly), hamachi (yellowfin tuna) or ebi (prawn). So far, so unremarkable. But reflect, for a minute, on all that raw fish. A generation ago, the idea of American office workers munching cheerfully on uncooked tuna would have been almost laughable. After all, the USA was the land of (cooked) steak and fries; sandwiches and hamburgers were the norm for lunch. Many Americans had only the haziest idea of what the Japanese actually ate; and there were few sushi restaurants to be found, even in cities such as New York.
在我纽约办公室的街角周围，开着好几家寿司店。大多数日子的午餐时分，店里都挤满了上班族，狼吞虎咽地吃着各种寿司，比如tolo（金枪鱼腹肉）、油甘鱼（黄鳍金枪鱼腹肉）或海老（虾）。咋看上去，一切似乎都很平常。但细想一下吧：所有这些可都是生鱼。大约二三十年前，若有人说美国上班族会高高兴兴地嚼着生金枪鱼肉，简直就像是一个笑话。毕竟，美利坚合众国是（熟）牛排和炸薯条的国度，三明治和汉堡才是标准的午餐。对于日本人吃什么的问题，许多美国人几乎都没有什么概念；即使在纽约这样的大城市，也几乎找不到几家寿司店。